I plead ignorance of this topic. What is a "DC" cable?
Audioquest DC cables - why are there almost no high end DC cables?
Hi everyone,
I noticed it's very difficult to get high end dc cables.
Why is that?
Surely a lot of components use DC connections: LPS, DAC/Streamers, HDD's, Switches.
I have been reading that a good DC cable need 2 things:
1. Geometry: starquad
2. Thick awg (12?)
Now I want have a DC cable made with audioquest wiring. These tick the above two requirements.
Can I use AQ type 4, CV4 or Rocket33 to make a DC cable?
The plug I will be using is Oyaide. Oyaide has high quality DC plugs in 2.1 and 2.5.
Ideas?
I noticed it's very difficult to get high end dc cables.
Why is that?
Surely a lot of components use DC connections: LPS, DAC/Streamers, HDD's, Switches.
I have been reading that a good DC cable need 2 things:
1. Geometry: starquad
2. Thick awg (12?)
Now I want have a DC cable made with audioquest wiring. These tick the above two requirements.
Can I use AQ type 4, CV4 or Rocket33 to make a DC cable?
The plug I will be using is Oyaide. Oyaide has high quality DC plugs in 2.1 and 2.5.
Ideas?
23 responses Add your response
I make my own DC umbilicals with Oyaide connectors and bundles of stranded 20awg .999 dead soft silver wire from Rio Grande, inside polyolefin heat-shrink tube from McMaster Carr. The effective gauge totals around 11awg. I'm using them from a Hynes SR7 four-rail power supply to SOtM USBultra, SOtM SMS-200Ultra, MicroRendu, SRS Rubidium master clock, Antelope LiveClock, and Merlin BBAM. |
Sorry to say, but... Connectors, cable types, and lengths... are not standardized in custom umbilicals. Nor will they ever be standardized. Each design is not truly unique but unique enough that there is no potential for any form of commonality to emerge. Demand would be spotty at best. If commonality emerged, it would be for maybe a few hundred pieces and maybe only 20-30 of them might desire a custom umbilical, without having the given manufacturer of said gear get upset about it and decline warranty. It’s not a hole in the market.... it’s a money losing trap, if one was to try and become a ’king’ of it. The best that can be done is to have an intelligent mind and skillset build a new cable for the given piece, from what cable types, brands, and constructional aspects -which is available for such uses and desired for the application at hand. Even then, such attempts and their overall results.....would be a crap shoot. Designing and issuing specific 'dc' wire would not be financially effective. The reality is that quite a few audiophile wire types are perfectly suited for such application, IF their skins have the appropriate markings for such use, or as issued in their officially published specifications. |
The next point is that some companies don’t want you to be changing umbilical as the resultant sonic changes can make the individual happy..but can then be sold onward and ---misrepresent the product to the next potential buyer. In that point, the given manufacturer can rightly take exception to such changes. Eg, the odd speaker manufacturer, to avoid this problem, makes potted (sealed in epoxy) crossovers and single wire termination only on their speakers. Just so the customer, who may be suffering from extremes of audio nervosa and tweak mania, can’t make changes that take the sonic result of the speaker..out of the area which the designer and builder of the speaker intended. why is this issue of misrepresentation a problem? Well, we are all different in our hearing and thus systems and build. All things sonic, felt, seen, and so on, are individual in their input and internal interpretation. Naming can be fairly consistent but that is the only part that is even remotely consistent and in consensus: The language of descriptors. that’s it. To the point that the same cable, the exact same cable we may be selling, is considered by different people, in different systems to be harsh, slow, fast, etched, screechy, beguiling, incredible, spacious, 3D, bass heavy, bass light, lacking in detail, extremes in micro detail, all polar extremes that you can imagine, as descriptors from people. All of the same cable. From excellent to crap, to best to bad, all the same cable. Literally the same cable. One’s given messing with an umbilical (or any other cable or component, for that matter) can be detrimental to the representation of the gear to other people in other systems. There is some meandering toward a consensus in expected results, but it is marginal, at best, in the long view. Since we all have individual aspects of internalizing sound signatures, it (consensus) will generally be marginal at best. Otherwise this business and forum would not exist. The solution and the problem are wholly intertwined and inextricable from one another. Pretty well for as long as humans are going to exist. |
Good quality DC cable should have solid-core conductors. Also, you really don’t need 12awg. Actually, you should avoid solid-core conductors that are this thick. Even though it’s DC, it still has a very high frequency draw (for high frequency audio transients). Thicker gauge conductors will not be able to provide high frequency charges as well. Your choices of Type 4 or CV4 would be perfect for DC cable. They use a combination of 20awg and 17awg in a star quad configuration, that gives you a total 15awg cable. You don’t need more than this for DC on a preamp/source device. The CV4 is discontinued, but it uses better copper (Perfect Surface Copper, which is Audioquest’s version of OCC). The Rocket 33 might give you more total AWG, but it’s not a star quad configuration. In my opinion, you really don’t need more than 15awg for DC. I generally use 20awg solid-core conductors for both DC and A/C cable. It is the best compromise overall. The 17awg in the CV4 would help low end. |
Hi guys! Thanks for the answers here! Alistair at Audioquest replied my email and he highly recommended me to NOT use the type4 or cv4 cable as a dc power cable. He said that: "It’s not recommend to use these speaker cables as power cables due to the conductive insulation used on the negative conductors." So now I am thinking of using the NRG 1.5 aq cable with the Oyaide plug. Will it work? What do you guys think? It is copper and starquad. 2 x 16awg http://www.audioquest.com/power-cables/nrg-1-5 Or do you still think that I should go ahead with type 4? However, nrg1.5 seems safer? |
The people at AQ replied me again of using NRG1.5 cable and not speakercable: "Alasdair Patrick Apatrick@audioquest.com Yes, if you wish."The cable is 2 x 16awg, not 19awg. The other problem is that the sleeve of the nrg1.5 is quite thick. Is there any problem connecting it to the Oyaide 2.5dc cable? Can I remove the sleeve entirely, or just leave the ends open to pull the copper wiring out and then apply heated shrinkwrap? |
yeah, the total cable is 16awg, but it uses 2 x 19awg conductors for each leg. I was going to mention that the Audioquest power cord is quite stiff. If you want to completely strip the outer cover and then just use the individually insulated conductors, you're better off just getting straight chassis wire. Look at the Neotech 20awg Teflon OCC: http://www.soniccraft.com/index.php/neotech-wire-teflon-solid-cu-c-296_175_183_221 Or, if you want even better wire, try the Unicrystal OCC hookup wire from VH Audio: https://www.vhaudio.com/wire.html Then just use as many conductors for + / ground that you need. Every time you double a wire, you increase the awg by 3. For example, 2 x 20awg = 17awg. 3 x 20awg would be something like 15.5awg. You can twist the wires or braid, then cover with heatshrink and/or techflex. This would be more flexible than the Audioquest NRG cable. |
You folks may be over-invested in the star-quad construct. I made several PCs that way from TFT-insulated silver-plated copper wire that were subsequently trounced by thicker, pure silver wire in a simple twisted pair with a foil shield. It's worth a try. Thick silver wire is too expensive for commercial marketing, but relatively cheap for DIY. |
"yeah, the total cable is 16awg, but it uses 2 x 19awg conductors for each leg." the site says 2 x 16awg so does that mean 2 poles and in total 16 awg? I read it as 2 times 16awg, so 1 x 16awg conductors for each leg? This is what I found on another site: thickness conducturs: 2 x 1,31mm² The main question is: will it fit an Oyaide 2.5 and 2.1 DC plug? http://shoponstage.com/Oyaide-DC25G-DC-Power-Plug Body Material: Gold-plated brass finish Cover material: Berri brass chrome-plated finish Plug Type: PL03A (φ5.5mmxφ2.5mm) Max Cable O.D.: 6.3mm Accessories: Comes with three silicon spacer rings Manufacturer Oyaide electricity Maybe by taking the sleeves off at plugs end? We can use heatshrink to cover the sleeveless plugs ends off? |
There are 2 x 19awg conductors for the HOT (one blade), and then another 2 x 19awg conductors for NEUTRAL (the second blade). We call this a 16awg power cord because there is 16awg for each blade. On this particular cable, there is no ground, so it's just 2 major legs. If you look at the picture of NRG-1.5: https://www.audiodestination.co.uk/image/cache/catalog/data/Audioquest/Power/2315lg-800x700.jpg You will see that there are 4 wires total. There are two 19awg conductors for each blade. |